Flutterwave eyes Egypt’s cross-border payments market as it plans IPO

As Flutterwave moves to capture a share of Egypt’s cross-border remittances, the payment company hopes expanding and deepening its market coverage will also be a boost for its IPO appeal.

Flutterwave’s acquisition of a licence to payment services in Egypt may be linked to IPO plans which involve expanding its presence in major African economies. It already facilitates payment collection for an array of merchants in Egypt including Uber, but the company hopes it can tap into Egypt’s massive remittance market to deepen its market reach in the north African country. At the time it announced its Egyptian licence, Aalaa Gamal, regional manager of Flutterwave’s North Africa expansion and partnerships team in Egypt said the licensing represented the beginning of “other strategic wins in the North Africa and Middle East regions.”

Recall that in August 2022, Bloomberg reported that Flutterwave was moving ahead with its IPO plans in spite of the furore generated over accusations of financial impropriety in Kenya. Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola confirmed to TechCabal that his company is still planning its Nasdaq listing. 

“Obviously we have a plan to do that [IPO], Agboola said, “But currently, our goal is to deepen market penetration, get our customers where they want to be across the continent [and] scale the business. But we’re getting IPO ready as a company,” he added “The market has been slumping for a while, so it is a wrong time to IPO,” Agboola acknowledged, but he added that he “saw that CAVA IPOed recently and their numbers went up, which is a good sign that the market is coming back. So it’s going back to where it should be,” Agboola said.

CAVA, a Mediterranean “fast-casual” restaurant chain was founded 13 years ago in Washington DC. It announced an initial public offering on  June 15, sending the company’s valuation to  $4.7 billion on its stock market debut—twice the initial target of the IPO promoters. It was widely viewed as a sign that the IPO window may not be so closed off after a series of failed stock